Loaches living together

[MudFrog]

I have a 90 gallon, 40% planted, I would like to house three yoyo loaches, 6 kuhli loaches and two weater loaches together? Does anyone see a compatiblity problem? Oh, there is three dwarf bristelnose pleco's in there already.

The loaches already live in tanks around the house.

And would I be able to add fish? Can anyone suggest something that schools. My water is med hard. It's really very hard but I cut it using RO. Ph is usually 7.0 or so.

BTW cool site!

Thanks,

Lisa

[newshound]

I am no expert on W. loaches but I seem to remember that they need cooler water.
I think that Yoyos might be a bit nippy for the kuhli loaches as well.
but I have read of people housing botia and kuhli together (i think it was clowns actually).
get a few more yoyo too

[Erik]

Weather loaches are really a cold water fish. .
I would add a few more yoyo's instead or 3 or more striatas, kubotais, darios or histrionica. In act that list will do well all togeher(ie the dream team).
Btw I have 7 adult yoyo's in my 75G they get along fine and are out a fair bit.
Snce you have hard water I highly reccomend precox rainbows, max size is about 5 cm. They are great schoolers and very pretty. They will enjoy some current like your loaches as well.
As long as you provide lots of substrate cover like plants, mulm, bogwood etc the kuhli's will be happy too.
Erik

[mikev]

I think that Yoyos might be a bit nippy for the kuhli loaches as well

Observations from my tank confirm this. At least young yoyo's are bad for kuhli's, they are just too active and create stress. They are also bad for the BN in the tank.
It is possible that larger yoyos are ok, but yoyo's under 3" are certainly bad companions for either kuhlis or BN's.

And you would not see kuhlis too much in a 90g with other fish... More yoyo's is imho a better idea.

My dither for the large tank is large danios (a Bengal variation that maxes out at 3.5", but there are a couple more species)...but I have no idea how tolerant they are for hard water.

hth

[sophie]

mike, just to add a ymmv; I've got four (five??) small yoyos in a tank with a number of kuhlis and they ignore each other. nd by thyat I mean that they treat each other as part of the furniture; I've seen a kuhli resting draped over a yoyo and the yoyos sitting barbles touching one of those tangle things the kuhlis make under the logs. I'm expecting to have to keep an eye on things as they get bigger, but at the moment they're fine.

and yes, weather loach prefer cool water.

[mikev]

sophie, things were ok until the yoyo's crossed 2" (I got five, largest longer than 2.5"). they don't attack kuhlis, but they make them hide and they don't let them eat---if a yoyo sees a khuli eating, he drops his food and joins in.

So I see kuhlis in hiding (a happy kuhli should not hide) and I almost never see the BN anymore (they chased him away from food a couple of times, and now he is always under the wood.)

I don't think any kuhli will die from this, but with these terrorists around, I no longer see any interesting behavior from kuhlis....so my yoyos will be kicked out of this tank within a month...lets see if they can terrorize clowns or an 8" pleco, instead of picking on the weak.

And, to add to the complain list, they also succeeded in making the barbs shoal, so they stress the barbs too. No, they don't damage barbs' fins, but they do chase barbs for fun once in a while.

[Wendie]

I have black kuhlis with yo yo's and don't see any problems. I got them together when the Yo Yo's were about 1 1/2 inchs in size and the kuhlis were small 2 1/2 inchs and didn't have a problem. They all eat together in what can only be termed as a feeding frenzy. I find that the clowns - although smaller - will drive off the Yo Yo's but the kuhlis could care less. It's food. At this point the Yo Yo's are about 4 inches, the kuhlis about 3 - 3 1/2 and the clowns about 2 1/2 inches.

[cybermeez]

I've got one Yo-yo that's about 4" long and he lives with about 2 dozen kuhlis of assorted species and sizes. He completely ignores them and the kuhlis pay no attention to him either.

[shari]

Ime, while yo yos are curious little buggers, they rarely cause any damage to either tankmates or plants.

[Martin Thoene]

I think this series of posts is a classic example of why we sometimes use the caveat "your mileage may vary" when it comes to Botias particularly. Different fish in different circumstances react differently. Like us, they're all different.
Like Shari says though, generally Yoyos won't specifically do any harm to fish such as kuhlis. They may bother them in certain ways, but not do direct harm necessarily.

Martin.

[Graeme Robson]

I agree. They wont do any harm on purpose, but they often "knock" them around, which personally i find it a uncomfortable environment for them.

Graeme.

[MudFrog]

Thanks guys...